A money launderer found guilty of playing a key role in a prize draw scam that saw victims robbed of almost £33,000 is facing jail.
Gerald Sunnie provided a bank account in which unnamed international criminals deposited large sums of money stolen from vulnerable victims.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard he had himself been the victim of a scam but subsequently agreed to process cheques, depositing money in his account and then sending it on after taking a cut.
During a brief trial, depute fiscal Muhammad Sadiq said that while Sunnie may initially have been taken advantage of, it was clear he had thereafter known he was himself a participant in a fraud.
Trading Standards officers twice visited his home in the city’s Aboyne Avenue to tell him that he was involved in a scam and in fraudulent activity.
After informing him once again that he was part of an international fraud, they eventually had his bank account frozen.
The sheriff court heard Sunnie soon resumed his scam, taking in cheques from three victims identified to the court.
They were enticed into paying cheques totalling £32,900 into an account owned by Sunnie after being convinced they had each won a substantial monetary sum in a prize draw.
The money that collected in his bank account was said to have been requested in order for the supposed operators of the prize-draw to release their winnings.
He then sent the money to an unknown person.
Giving evidence in court, Sunnie denied knowing that he was participating in fraud.
Sheriff Simon Collins QC, however, found him guilty of a charge that between August 1 and 12, 2013, at his home address, he became concerned in an arrangement that he knew facilitated the acquisition of criminal property, namely £32,900, on behalf of another.
Sheriff Collins rejected evidence that he had been unaware he was participating in a scam.
He told him: “You are an intelligent and articulate 58-year-old man who until recently worked in industry.
“By any standard the arrangement you entered, even from the outset, was obviously a scam.
“By August 1 you had twice been visited by Trading Standards officers who told you that it was a scam and that you were involved in a fraud and your bank account was stopped.
“To claim you did not suspect the “claimants” were the victims of fraud stretches credulity.”
Sunnie had also denied obtaining the money by fraud, having known that the woman had not won any money in any lottery. He was acquitted of that offence.
Sentence was deferred until August 26 and Sunni released on bail meantime, though the sheriff warned him to be “under no illusion” that a custodial sentence would be at the forefront of the court’s mind.
